Hester

On a audio-only call and there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the background. Explanation: his cat has worked out that the most effective way to get his attention is to press the chair lever that makes the seat sink towards the floor, which is my new favourite mental image. Is this a common cat trick?

Do I have any followers with a story about how an electric bike changed their life for the better? I'm looking for strong examples of how an e-bike made something previously unattainable, or hard, a possibility.

For a print magazine, so come prepared with your best head/bike shot!

DOG AT THE OLYMPICS
FULL COMPETITION HIGHLIGHTS

The reason I prefer the gallery for the BBC Proms: walking around (carefully and quietly) during the music. People with picnics and newspapers. Very casual experience up where the cameras don't see the audience. Haven't been for a few years and vibes may have changed.

Sorry to get radical but I don’t think it’s my job or yours to embrace, accept, understand - and certainly not to use - the thing being sold to us as AI. I don’t like any part of it, so I won’t. I’m missing out? Good, that’s what I want. You’re worried about me missing out? That’s fuckin weird, man.

SCENE: A PASSPORT CONTROL GATE, IN THE SKY, ON A CLOUD. THE PASSPORT CONTROL GATE HAS ‘CORPOREAL REALM’ WRITTEN ON IT. PASSPORT CONTROL OFFICIAL: Passport please, sir. OFFICIAL [LOOKING AT PASSPORT]: Ah - the famous Dr Jenner! EDWARD JENNER, A FLOATING GHOST IN EDWARDIAN GARB: Indeed, haha OFFICIAL: And what's the purpose of your visit to the corporeal realm, Dr Jenner? EDWARD JENNER: Haunting. OFFICIAL: Oh lovely. Anyone nice? EDWARD JENNER: Just a little tour of some anti-vaxxers. OFFICIAL: Wonderful. I hear Andrew Wakefield’s bedroom is just •perfect• at this time of year. EDWARD JENNER: It is! I spent last summer standing by his bed, calling him a c--. OFFICIAL: Lucky yooou… OFFICIAL [LOOKING AT DOCUMENTS]: Oh... oh dear... 
EDWARD JENNER: Is everything OK? OFFICIAL: I’m afraid your card says you haven’t had the required stupidity vaccination for your trip. EDWARD JENNER: Oh dear! 
OFFICIAL: It’s fine - we can do it here…
 Just read this anti-vax tweet by Jim Carrey
 EDWARD JENNER [reading a smartphone]: Egads! [Ends]

From 2019

Chart showing recent confirmed measles cases per year in England ranging from 1,414 in 2013 to 2,911 in 2024 and 91 in 2015

🧵What is going on with Measles in England?

UKHSA has reported 96 confirmed measles cases since 1 Jan 2026, concentrated in London (64% of cases) and the West Midlands (26% of cases).

But what does this all mean? Is 96 a lot? Why is it happening? And what can we do about it? 1/8

okay at this point I’m just procrastinating BUT! This is one of my favourite topics because! At some point, in probably about a century, ppl are gonna look at those brutalist council housing blocks that survive and think they’re lovely/aesthetic/whatever. How do I know?
Jericho.

A picture of Dales Brewery seen from Gwydir Street, with the large metal cup on top, roughly person sized. Now it has been removed, but the large metal DALES sign is still there.

Do you remember when Dale's Brewery still had the cup on top? Here it is in the 1960s. The brewery was founded by Frederick Dale at the British Queen pub on Histon Road in 1898 and moved into the specially built brewery in 1902.

What's with all the ducks?

Robin as a callow youth, brave and driven but a bit naïve, is a fun take. And his followers rowdy, fighty, sometimes bullies themselves, likewise works.

Also watching Gisburne repeatedly thwarted and humiliated by both sides is a delight.

Sick day. Binge re-watching Robin of Sherwood. There's a few really standout episodes which add something to the mythology and a lot of fairly standard filler, lifted by the relationships between Robin's men, and Nicholas Grace as the Sheriff, an absolute treasure.

-… then if you check table 6 it will tell you how many points you get for your age. Add those points to the ones from your Relatives-aboard cards and Family-elsewhere cards…
-Um, Eric, the water's getting pretty high.
-Then stop interrupting! Next, you'll need your dice and the saving throw chart.

This is an incredibly unusual result in the UK, BTW, where it is quite rare to find a ban or a crackdown that the public doesn't love.

AKA "do an Archers' worth". I get a heck of a lot done while grouching at the residents of Ambridge.

A huge pile of rock, chalk and soil that has fallen from the sized cliff side to resemble a frowning, aquiline-nosed, bearded man

A huge pile of rock, chalk and soil that has fallen from the sized cliff side to resemble a frowning, aquiline-nosed, bearded man

While sudden cliff falls at Birling Gap (near my home town of Eastbourne) are no joke, I really love how much it looks like we’ve roused a grumpy, sleepy sea-wizard.

A sign on a door that reads “Cow Planting”

I have some questions about agriculture

This was always the funny thing about covering university sport is when you'd be at literally any other woman's sport in an audience that was just you, someone from the other university's paper, and then someone from British Rowing.

No spoilers, but the blasphemous theology of Noel Edmonds will haunt my nightmares.

not that it's not a complex issue but it drives me *insane* that we've been watching the world set itself on fire over the past decade or so partly because of people quite suddenly going from Not Very Online to Way Too Online and governments now want to recreate that experience with teens everywhere

YouTube video by Life in the 1800s My Grandfather Met Napoleon: Bertrand Russell Interview 1952 - Enhanced Video & Audio [60 fps]

There’s a great clip of him retelling it. (Also, the accent!) youtu.be/4OXtO92x5KA?...

Piece of HIGHLY niche advice:

If you're taking your daughter to her first heavy metal gig, make sure the all-female black metal support band don't play completely naked. It's a bit awkward.

A truly magnificent sight (slightly ruined by Windsor Castle).
#WorldBollardAssociation

A headline about evolution of land vertebrates saying “It Started Out as a Fish. How Did It End Up Like This?” which a person on Tumblr turns into an epic “Mr Brightside” parody.

A smartphone is on an end table. It's balancing up on end, and speaking, so maybe it's animate? This is unclear. SMARTPHONE: Hey! HEY! The phone is speaking to PORDLEY, who is trying to practice the piano. He looks up at the phone which is addressing him on its own. SMARTPHONE: I can't help but notice you've been holding me less. I MISS you. I miss your nimble TAPS and SWIPES. PORDLEY: It's because you're a PORTAL to HORRORS! Nothing personal. It's just...you ARE a PORTAL. And there are SO VERY MANY horrors. SMARTPHONE: I'm a portal to EVERYTHING. Don't you want to see GOOFS AND SPOOFS? You LOVE goofs and spoofs! PORDLEY: I DO love goofs and spoofs. SMARTPHONE: I've got SO MANY goofs and spoofs. Pordley, convinced, reaches tentatively for the phone... HORRORS ERUPT FROM THE PHONE. Of course! Of course!!!

They're still out there. The goofs and spoofs. If we can only find them.

Wondermark #1582; Limit Your Scream Time

What's so amazing about Jim Henson as a puppeteer is that he could literally be explaining that Kermit is made out of felt and ping pong balls and yet Kermit still feels alive the whole time he's doing it

A large Regency house. Two sisters named Emilia and Charlotte talk on an upper floor. "Mister Blackwell has come to call again." says Emilia as she looks out of the window "Oh, how I despise his uncouth manners and electric bicycle!" Charlotte says "Sister, you will end up a spinster if you insist on a historically accurate suitor." and continues "The romance novel has changed, Emilia, and so must we." Emilia replies "Easy for you to say. You are engaged to the richest werewolf in the county!" They are walking through the house. Charlotte says "Look at Cousin Lucy: She is quite plain, yet made a most advantageous match with the dragon queen of nalthrax." "True." says Emilia opening the door. The tall, solid figure of Miuster Blackwell stands at the door wearing a top hat and tailcoat: "Ladies, I triumphed In my ice hockey match and won ten thousand a year in sponsorship! Miss Emilia, will you be my bride?" he is holding a hockey stick. Emilia swoons into Charlotte's arms.

A romance cartoon for the @theguardian.com